The book A Criminal Investigation released by Le Bal a few years ago, displays the work of freelance photographer Watabe Yukichi as he follows police detectives assigned to a grisly murder investigation in 1958 Tokyo.

The cinematic quality, the heavy noir tone, the procedural elements of the investigation harken to the great Hollywood noir classics but especially to the Kurosawa police procedurals, High and Low and Stray Dog.

Feb. 17, 1938: Tear gas drifts from a home in the 1700 block of East 22nd Street as Los Angeles police trade gunfire with barricaded suspect George Farley. The bodies of a deputy city marshal and his helper — shot and killed by Farley as they tried to serve an eviction notice on him — lie in front of the barricaded home. Killed were Deputy Marshal T. Dwight Crittenden and Leon W. Romer, both 60.